A DOCUMENTARY charting gay life in Brighton over the last half-century will air on BBC television tonight.

Narrated by Stonewall founding member Simon Fanshawe, Brighton: 50 Years of Gay marks the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act and subsequent decriminalisation of homosexuality.

From that momentous ruling the film goes on to document the AIDs epidemic of the 80s, the progression of Brighton Pride and the introduction of civil partnerships.

Mr Fanshaw told The Argus that the documentary highlights the increased “visibility” of gays and lesbians in public life since the 1960s.

He said:”Fifty years ago there was a real combination of defiance and fear from gay people. Gay activists were dressing up as nuns and roller-skating into conferences.

“It was an extraordinary mix of going out and loving life and hiding who you were.”

One man who fell foul of institutionalised homophobia in the 1970s was Tony Whitehead who was pictured kissing another man in a television documentary.

Soon after, he was forced to resign from his job at BHS in Worthing.

Mr Fanshawe said the episode made people rally around Mr Whitehead and rail against injustice and discrimination.

“There was an ‘enough is enough’ kind of approach from the public. It was drawing the line. BHS said ‘this is not the kind of behaviour that is acceptable for a family store’ and the public said ‘actually we don’t agree with that’. In the main, people don’t like unfairness.”

With gay clubs in Brighton booming and more openly LGBT musicians appearing on television, Mr Fanshawe said “there had never been a better time to be gay” than the early 80s.

However, the AIDs crisis soon cast a dark shadow over Brighton life. In a particularly poignant part of the documentary, Allan Dover remembers attending a number of his friends’ funerals in a short space of time.

Mr Fanshawe said the epidemic was “terrifying”. He added, though, that “the maturity of the response was wonderful. People refused to lie down under this thing and they said ‘we have got to start putting funding into this problem’”.

One of the film’s last scenes sees Mr Fanshawe sitting in the building in which he and his husband had their civil partnership. While Mr Fanshawe said that society is still “on a journey” towards gay equality, this image strikes a optimistic note.

Mr Fanshawe said: “It’s all about equal citizenship under the law. It’s incredibly enlightening to say to people, ‘this is my husband’”.

Brighton: 50 Years of Gay is on BBC South and BBC South East tonight at 7pm.